dimanche 12 septembre 2010

Some blogger friends were very close to the Pentagon on that sombre day.We were then living in Val-David, 90 kilometres north -west of Montreal, and finishing our breakfast.We are not morning TV persons.Around 9:40, our phone began ringing- “Is your TV on?” asked an excited voice, “if not turn it on, I’ll call back later, bye!”What we saw kept us there most of the day.

Other friends called to ask if we had heard from John whose son worked in one of the Towers.We called John in Montreal, he was unable to reach his daughter-in-law, (they lived near the Towers), and worried like hell.Later that day he called us to say his daughter-in-law had called and his son was safe at a conference in Vienna.

This is how close we were.Save for a few overexcited fanatics around Ousama bin Laden, an out of control C.I.A. creation to fight the Russians, no one anywhere were not sympathizing with the U.S. and its citizens.

I wonder what is now more distressing: the event itself or the aftermaths, the divisions, the accusations, all those plot theories about inside jobs, Mossad, the White House wishing to create an incident to invade Afghanistan and all the mud slinging that ensued.

And now the Islamic Community Center and that illuminated Floridian, who needs that?I am not a U.S. foe but not an unconditional fan either; still I grieve for all those sincere, civilized and caring U.Sers who have to endure the senseless imperialists and “nation builders” (colonialists) among them and pay for their folies.

jeudi 2 septembre 2010

While visiting Chichen Itza a photographer asked to take our picture, we agreed. On the bus to and from Chichen we had open bar for all save our 14 years old grandson who could have soft drinks. On the way back Gustavo, our devoted bus waiter, came up the aisle distributing tequila bottles. To our amazement we saw our picture on the label, same for all the other passengers, labels had been printed bearing each one's picture. So for 200 pesos (20$US) we got our very own personalized tequila souvenir bottle on the last day of our trip.

mercredi 1 septembre 2010

No Hoch, Xel Ha, Coba village and even Chichen Itza (as administrators for the government) are all part of "Alltournative Imagenative" born in February 2001 from the fusion of the communities, as an ecological, creative and sustainable project that favored an economic development and created both educational opportunities and employment for the people in the communities, using clean and alternative sources.The people we met there were happy and proud of their accomplishments.

This is the Unimog, a monster of a truck. It bounces on that rocky road for maybe 5 or 6 minutes that feel like an eternity. You sit on narrow unpadded lateral seats holding on to a center railing in the box. My neighbour told me do as if you are riding a horse? That I never did so I did what I could

The cenote was a refreshing experience. We spent the better part of one hour swimming through a maze of caverns amongst bats and other creatures and watching not to hit stalagtites nor stalagmites. Here I am with my grandson and my daughter Nadia. We had floating vests so we only had to propel ourselves without worrying about floating, much less exhausting.

In another cenote we gathered in a circle around a Mayan "priest" for a small prayer ceremony in honor of the Rain and Sun gods. It was very simple and even moving as we were given some copa and later invited to participate through putting our copa pinch in the copa burner and then blessed with it. Everybody, even the three adolescents in the group were very respectful. Here we could not swim but had to walk barefoot along the path partly water, wood and rocks. Those about 100 feet almost killed me, I have fragile feet.

We rode bicycles to the tyroleans. The bike path was a bit rough with some small hills along the way. Took about thirty minutes round trip. A teen age girl stopped at the top of a hill and almost caused a pile up...but we all braked on time without spill.

That was the No Hoch experience. Not easy but not as extreme as it may look. I would do it again...but with beach shoes this time and pad my behind for the Unimog ride.